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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29917185">Comfy Sweater</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kissa/pseuds/Kissa'>Kissa</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Shadowhunters (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alec Lightwood Deserves Nice Things, Boys In Love, First Kiss, Fluff without Plot, Getting Together, Good Parabatai Alec Lightwood, Good Parabatai Jace Wayland, Idiots in Love, Love, Love Confessions, Love Languages, M/M, Parabatai, Parabatai Feels, Protective Jace Wayland, Tooth-Rotting Fluff</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 20:35:04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,713</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29917185</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kissa/pseuds/Kissa</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Alec feels loved.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Alec Lightwood &amp; Jace Wayland, Alec Lightwood/Jace Wayland</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>34</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Comfy Sweater</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wiindy/gifts">Wiindy</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I said I'd write something happy and cute for you, as thank you for your ongoing support and inspiring comments.</p><p>I will add some art when I get home later today! Can't leave the fic naked :P</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Alec finished and put the rag in the bucket, looking over the result of his good work. His newly installed floor sparkled like only something that's been cleaned by someone sweating on all fours can.<br/><br/>Now that Jace was a Herondale and Imogen wanted to spoil her only grandson rotten, Alec had finally gotten the approval for floor heating in the Institute, at least for the living quarters wing.<br/><br/>The feeling of his bare feet touching the ice cold stone floor all through his childhood was now burned into his memory for good. It was one of the most unpleasant sensations there were, and to Alec it was nastier than pain from being whipped with the buckle side of a belt.<br/><br/>Since Jace had come to live with them, he had always snuck out of his room to go comfort Jace and help him rest. He was used to going to bed in his room and waking up in Jace’s and everyone had begun to think of them as a unit, like salt and pepper or bread and butter. </p><p>Now he had taken it upon himself to install the flooring in Jace’s room. He had picked the tiles himself, the easily cleaned ones, and white instead of anthracite like the rest of the rooms got. Because he knew Jace loved to walk around barefoot, especially after baths, and he’d surely appreciate having warm and clean feet. </p><p>Either way, Alec was pretty impressed with himself, because he was not a manual labour kind of guy, but the instructions had been pretty straightforward and everything had gone over smoothly. Jace might not notice right away, but when he did, he would love the change.<br/><br/>He had also scrubbed the tiles clean after laying them and letting the grout dry.<br/><br/>Now he was still on his knees on the floor, looking to see if he had missed any spots. But even if he had, it wouldn’t have been bad because Jace kept his quarters so clean, Alec liked to joke by saying bacteria had to bring a packed lunch if they wanted to sit on Jace’s things. However, he kept his joke to himself because he realized the reason why Jace was so tidy was because it had been beaten into him since early childhood.<br/><br/>“Hey Alec, put some clothes on, we’re go-” Jace burst through the door already speaking, and stopped in his tracks, taking in the sight of his new, shiny floor and Alec on his knees, in an old sleeveless shirt that now has some grout on it and some old track pants that used to be black and are now grey from cement dust.<br/><br/>“... like I said, I need you to make yourself presentable, we need to be somewhere soon.” Jace said, some quick mental math determining his priorities in the moment.<br/><br/>He can’t take his eyes off the sparkling floor, or from Alec, who looks good enough to eat in his work-worn clothes.<br/><br/>“Mission?” Alec’s frown dissolves.<br/><br/>“Yeah, mundane world. But for now we’re doing recon. I just said there would be two of us coming and I don’t want to raise suspicions.”<br/><br/>“Give me a minute, then. Or three.” Alec says, hiding his disappointment at Jace saying nothing about the floor. Not everyone can say that the Head of their Institute tiled their bedroom and modernized the heating in a centuries-old building just for them.<br/><br/></p><hr/><p><br/>Downtown, Alec is surprised to see Jace taking him to a very fancy bakery, one he would think twice about entering even on a pay day.<br/><br/>“Mr Herondale. Welcome back. It’s so great your fiancé could make it too. We set up a tasting table in the back.” </p><p>Alec’s eyes are about to pop out of their sockets and his heart is nearly beating out of his chest.<br/><br/><em> Fiancé?!?!?!?! </em></p><p>Then they are shown to a lovely area with a long table full of cake slices - <em> big </em>cake slices. </p><p>Slowly, Alec realises they are at a cake tasting of sorts and surely the consultant thinks they will end up buying something. He makes a note to ask Jace how he found out about the place and whether he lied about there being a mission that requires them to be here. The back of the shop is lovely, set up like a winter garden with flowers and plants of all sorts, and a table set under a pergola of vine leaves and fairy lights. <br/><br/>“No, there is no mission, but I knew if I asked you to put work aside for some fun you would not have come of your own accord.” Jace explains later, munching on pistachio sponge with lemon cream and marzipan. “My Seelie friends told me about this place and how to get us all this cake.”<br/><br/>“Are we celebrating something?” Alec asks, overwhelmed and still in disbelief. “The girl from earlier called me your fiancé?”<br/><br/>“Oh, I told them we were getting married and we are shopping for cake flavours so they’d leave us alone with all this cake.” Jace says, blushing uncharacteristically. “Although, if I ever was to marry someone, it would be you.”<br/><br/>“Me? Not Clary?” </p><p>“Clary is a lost puppy. She will find her mother, one way or the other, and be on her way. But you’re my parabatai. And to answer your other question, we are celebrating. You, Alec, and your unwavering love for me through the years. It’s always there, carrying me through the worst of times, wrapped around me like a comfy warm sweater. And I know you think I didn’t notice you put new flooring in my room with your own two hands. But I did and honestly I can’t think of any gesture that can top that. My little surprise with the cake pales in comparison.”<br/><br/>Alec gasps.  So much to take in at once… and so many more questions arise.<br/><br/>“It is true, Jace. I do love you. You’re my entire life. And I’ve come to terms with the fact you’ll never love me back the same way.”</p><p>“Uh… what?” Jace asks, sliding closer and coming to sit across Alec’s thighs, on his lap.<br/><br/>Alec’s arms instinctively wrap themselves around Jace, holding him close and safe, because Jace will always be his most precious and treasured thing in the whole world.<br/><br/>“I’m too late, aren’t I?” Jace asks. “You decided to get with Magnus after all.”<br/><br/>“Too late? What for? And Magnus and I aren’t going to work out. I realized it when I was cleaning blood off his sofa and he told me he has magic for that. There is nothing I can be for him or bring him that he cannot already get for himself, in much better quality. I’m just some guy, he’s an old warlock who’s seen the world and all it has to offer.”<br/><br/>“Don’t sell yourself so short, Alec, or I’ll kick your ass. You don’t get to talk about my boyfriend that way.”<br/><br/>“Boyfriend? Are you and Magnus…?” Alec asks, confused. He has trouble keeping up with the emotional tsunami Jace saw fit to drop on him.<br/><br/>“I’m not sitting in Magnus’ lap now, am I? It’s you, Alec. It’s always been you.”<br/><br/>“But… all those Seelies? Clary?”<br/><br/>“I can’t help that I’m cute and to the Seelies I am some sort of murder kitten they like to pet and pamper and teach all sorts of things. Did you know the whole Downworld laughs at us and treats us like their slow cousins? It’s even in the early version of the Bible, it says there that the Nephilim are the children of angels with mortal women, and they are blessed with extreme beauty and very simple minds. There’s a lot the Downworld is not sharing with us, and good for them, even mundane kids know not to talk to the cops.”<br/><br/>“Wait, what? Jace, slow down. One thing at a time.”<br/><br/>“Oh, yeah, right.” Jace says, giving Alec his “watch this, shit’s about to get real” smile right before he brings his lips to Alec’s and kisses him gently.<br/><br/>Alec can only whimper, he couldn’t take any more words right now, it’s all so overwhelming and going too fast, but this? He’s been hoping and dreaming of this since he was a child. <em>This</em> he understands and wants, so he cautiously kisses back, his arms around Jace tightening as though afraid he’ll change his mind or say it was all a prank and leave.<br/><br/>But Jace would never be this cruel. Jace’s whole mind is on his first kiss and getting to taste more of Alec. Once the first step was taken, it got easier and, since Alec is not bolting, the battle is already won.<br/><br/>As far as first kisses go, it’s better than anything either of them imagined. There isn’t even much insecurity or hesitation because they’ve both been wanting this for a long time and it feels like <em>the rightest</em> thing to do. Plus, they are parabatai and, like with everything else they do together, they effortlessly find their rhythm.<br/><br/>Once it’s all out in the open between them, it’s easy for both of them to act the part of lovebirds and two engaged people looking for the perfect cake.<br/><br/>Alec has never had cake before in his life. He just knew it’s something delicious, meant as a treat for boys and girls who do well in class and in training. But he never got any because his mother always said he would get fat if he ate cake. Now he’s tried every delicious flavour of cake in town thanks to Jace and he feels stoned with delight. Jace gifted him an experience he’s been denied his entire life and which he himself would not have thought himself deserving of, but more than that, Jace gave him his heart in the way Alec feared was always out of reach for him. Raziel could come down from the heavens and make wings sprout from Alec’s back and it still would not be as miraculous as Jace in his arms, peppering soft kisses along his jaw while burrowing close.<br/><br/>For the first time, Alec feels like the comfy warm sweater has been placed on his shoulders and it’s Jace who swaddles him in it. </p><p>(the end)</p><p><br/> </p>
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